A lot of you know very little about basketball.
No players in today's game are worthy of wiping Barkley's ass? There are 5-7 forwards in the NBA now that are at least as talented as he was - what did he ever win anyway?
"Teams are not playing any better defense than they used to" - WRONG! Defense is studied and worked on 100x more than it ever has been. Don't believe me? Check Steve Kerr's (NBA all time leader in 3pt FG percentage) latest article on this very topic - and he knows more about hoops than all of us put together.
Zone defenses were re-allowed a few years ago as an anti-Shaq rule, no other reason..they really haven't had much of an impact on scoring, the trend was moving down before that rule change as well.
The other factor is shooting, and many of you did in fact touch on that. Dunks and 3pt shots are the two area's young players work on now, the mid-range game is completely gone....there are only a few guys on each team that can consistently hit the 12-18 ft shots. Karl Malone is the #2 scorer in NBA history hitting probably 80 to 90% of his shots from that range.
Finally, lets not go to the "sub par players drafted" - back in the old days the draft had anywhere from 4 to 10 rounds, so even though there were fewer teams there were actually more players drafted - now the draft is only 2 rounds.
No players in today's game are worthy of wiping Barkley's ass? There are 5-7 forwards in the NBA now that are at least as talented as he was - what did he ever win anyway?
"Teams are not playing any better defense than they used to" - WRONG! Defense is studied and worked on 100x more than it ever has been. Don't believe me? Check Steve Kerr's (NBA all time leader in 3pt FG percentage) latest article on this very topic - and he knows more about hoops than all of us put together.
Zone defenses were re-allowed a few years ago as an anti-Shaq rule, no other reason..they really haven't had much of an impact on scoring, the trend was moving down before that rule change as well.
The other factor is shooting, and many of you did in fact touch on that. Dunks and 3pt shots are the two area's young players work on now, the mid-range game is completely gone....there are only a few guys on each team that can consistently hit the 12-18 ft shots. Karl Malone is the #2 scorer in NBA history hitting probably 80 to 90% of his shots from that range.
Finally, lets not go to the "sub par players drafted" - back in the old days the draft had anywhere from 4 to 10 rounds, so even though there were fewer teams there were actually more players drafted - now the draft is only 2 rounds.
Bad shooting. Just look at the shooting percentages of the players today and the players before them.
This is most of the reason for the long term decline in scoring; the trend toward low scores started years before zone defense came back. There is so much more emphasis on team defense, and that began in the late 80's/early 90's. It's been ratcheted up continuously since then. Watch an older game on ESPN classic (preferrably a normal regular season game, not a playoff game or freak game where someone scored 67 pts) and pay attention to the effort put forth by the defenders on every possession, the athleticism of the defenders, the infrequency of double teams, the help defense, the relative amount of bumping and contact that is allowed off the ball, and the number of uncontested shots allowed. Some of these are fairly subtle, but overall there is a definite difference.
I think there's also some truth to the argument that the highlight shows have glamorized the dunk and indirectly led to the decline of fundamental shooting skills.
I don't know a whole lot about basketball but I thought the decline in scoring was due to fewer/if any teams running a fast break offense anymore.
oh please. athletes today are much better than back then. back then the gap between a great player and your average player was huge. basketball wasn't as popular as it is now, it wasn't as profitable as it is now, it wasn't as marketed as it is now, and players did not train as much and were not as physically gifted as today's athletes.
next you'll be telling me that the football teams of old are better than the teams of today.
"next you'll be telling me that the football teams of old are better than the teams of today."
they were much much better ! 70's Steelers would murder any current team, for example.
they were much much better ! 70's Steelers would murder any current team, for example.
yeah. even though they're giving up 50-100lbs to todays athletes.
today's teams would murderlize the teams of old.
today's teams would murderlize the teams of old.
those quarterbacks would probably be as drunk as joe namath if they had to take the pounding that david carr takes. they wouldn't be able to survive the pounding from today's defenses.
Yea, Franco Harris, he was so tiny.
Jack Lambert
LC Greenwood
Joe Greene
John Stallworth
..
Originally posted by: Dead Parrot Sketch
Yea, Franco Harris, he was so tiny.Not to mention John Riggins of the Redskins..
Jack Lambert
LC Greenwood
Joe Greene
John Stallworth
..
franco harris? jack lambert? eddie george could kick both their asses.
and their opposing defenses are probably the best there've ever been. don't take anything away from carr. the guy's a manimal.
OMG - first of all, the Steeler teams of the mid 70's wouldn't be able to stop nearly any team in the NFL from running the ball down their throats - players from that era were quite a bit smaller and less powerful - note that I am not talking about skill, just physical dominance....the avg O lineman back then was 250ish, and it wasn't uncommon to see O lineman in the 230-240 range.....Today's big lineman would physically overpower teams from the 70's, hands down. Franco, by the way, while not a small back, and certainly a talented back, would be one of the slower RB's in the NFL if he played today.
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